Hardscrabble's rugged cliffs provide ideal habitat for bighorn sheep because the country is wild, rocky, and open, and against the steep canyon walls their brown coats blend into vegetation and stone. Their presence can be detected by white rump patches on the hillsides, the bleating of ewes and lambs, or the head-banging of dominant rams. Human encroachment and habitat loss have forced bighorn sheep into smaller, less desirable areas, making them more vulnerable to predators and disease, and traffic also threatens sheep that cross and feed near highways. An estimated 7,000-8,000 bighorn sheep now live in scattered herds from Colorado's lowest elevations to the tops of its highest mountains, after management by the Colorado Division of Wildlife, including habitat improvement projects, transplanting, and hunting restrictions, brought them back from near extinction in the early 1900s. Among rams, facing away from each other and avoiding eye contact while bedded down reflects a structured pecking order that begins in lambs and continues through adult life, while head-butting settles disputes between larger and more dominant males.